Northwest Fishing Reports

Hello,

I was scoping out some high altitude lakes on google earth that were in the proximity of Dog Lake, and I found a long chain of lakes and cannot find any information about them. They are just North of Dog Lake (close to the summit of highway 12 -- white pass). My boss said he hiked into cramer lake, but that has been about 40 years ago. Are these lakes (dumbell, cramer shellrock, dancing lady, otter, etc) fishable? If so, are they pretty much all eastern brook lakes? Also, how difficult is the hike into them? Any help would be greatly appreciated. I posted a map at the bottom for reference. Thanks!

Joe

This advice probably won't be helpful at all, but since no body else seems to have info I'll give the little I have. I've never been to any of them myself, but I have talked with a guy at work about the lakes behind Dog. He has hiked to a few of them aparently, and he says there is trout in them. I'll have to grill him about his experiences more, but it'll have to wait a couple weeks because his wife just gave birth to their second kid so he's taking some time off. He's an avid fly fisherman, so all of his stories will relate to fly fishing. I too would like to get back into those lakes this summer; it'd be neat to have a lake to yourself in this day and age.

You may have looked at these already, but here's the fry stocking reports from 2002-2005 for Cramer, Shellrock, Otter, Art, Hill, and Long John. It also lists their surface area; aparently they've all been stocked with "Mt.Whitney Rainbow", besides Otter which holds "Twin Lakes Cutthroat". Sounds like good shore lunches to me!

Fish-or-man? wrote:This advice probably won't be helpful at all, but since no body else seems to have info I'll give the little I have. I've never been to any of them myself, but I have talked with a guy at work about the lakes behind Dog. He has hiked to a few of them aparently, and he says there is trout in them. I'll have to grill him about his experiences more, but it'll have to wait a couple weeks because his wife just gave birth to their second kid so he's taking some time off. He's an avid fly fisherman, so all of his stories will relate to fly fishing. I too would like to get back into those lakes this summer]fry stocking reports from 2002-2005[/url] for Cramer, Shellrock, Otter, Art, Hill, and Long John. It also lists their surface area; aparently they've all been stocked with "Mt.Whitney Rainbow", besides Otter which holds "Twin Lakes Cutthroat". Sounds like good shore lunches to me!

Hey thanks for the info, that actually really helps me out a lot. I'm even more intrigued about getting into those lakes now that I have seen that they hold fish. Talk about total peace and quiet eh? Thanks again! Tight lines.

Joe

fishnislife wrote:Yo Joe whaddya know, try calling the Wenatchee National Forest, Naches Ranger District 509-653-2205 or the WDFW Yakima office 509-575-2740.
Got the #'s out of Foghorn Outdoors Washington Fishing guide.
They'd probably love the call (since they are just sitting there all day) and most of the time those guys are really helpful.


fishnislife

Thanks bud!

I've been to them all (excepting otter)... and on numerous occasions...


Gotta get your timing right on these ones.... I can recall hitting dumbell 'bout mid july one year and the mosquitos were so thick over the lake that they looked like a thick buzzing, swirling fog...

as soon as they spotted me it seemed like the air above the lake started to clear as they raced to be the first to try the "fresh meat"....... All I could do was run....

I should have known better because my decades of hiking in the cascades have taught me that the first month after the snow melts is mosquito month... 'bout mid august there will be a freeze and that is when our time starts........

so when I talk about fishing any of these particular lakes I'm talking about fishing them after the first cold front in august through mid october when the first snows start to fall........ It's about a 2 month window that varies from year to year, but never by too much.

my first trips into the mountains started in the early 60s and I've been a frequent visitor ever since.... over these long years I've noticed radical changes in the use patterns of the lakes and the peaks and the ridges...... no space to go into the detail here, but
most recreational areas in the cascades now are used by horsers and by granolas... You'll see lots of other folks to, but once you get more than a mile or so from any trailhead you've lost the lightweights, the "golly gee'ers", the people taking their dogs for walks, etc., etc. and it will be mostly granolas or horsers after that....... I am one of the very few who don't fit into either category, but I've learned the cultures of both very well and can blend very nicely when it is required.

so whenever you're scoping out any mountain lake in the cascades you first have to ask yourself whether it's a "granola" spot or a "horser" spot....... Horsers fish and any lake with a recognizable horse camp will probably be fished out. Granola's don't fish very much and I've been to many lakes that took enormous people pressure but where fishing was very good because nobody was fishing them.......

anyways, with that in mind beerman, you must deal with the many lakes north of White Pass as "horser" lakes because they are used primarily by horsers.... the "granolas" prefer alpine ridges and rocky trails with expansive views and the trails and lakes north of white pass are in thick forests. Forests that block views and wind and daytime sun... the blocking of the wind and daytime sun are why mosquitos are so bad in July and early august.. mosquitos hate wind and they hate the sun...



Horsers will tend to fish out lakes where horse camping areas exist but they are rather lazy and tend not to walk very far to find greener pastures.......


Now.. my recommendations....



Cramer --- This is an odd one. I've mostly seen parents with kids and boy scouts at the camping area north of the lake. It's always busy and that's why I've never fished it. It falls out of my carefully described use pattern, but I've walked along the shore of the lake and noticed good sized fish swirling. Not a lot of them, but when there's a hatch you'll see activity.

Dumbell-- definitely some fish in this lake, but from the rises I've watched and the fish I've caught they tend to be on the small size. Always see horsers fishing it also.


Otter-- this one is hard to find. I walked right by it the one time I was trying to find it. I think I know where I was supposed to turn now though and will hit it one of these days. Have heard rumors of nice fish in this lake. Oh yeah, if you want to do any bushwhacking get one of those green trails maps.. the stuff you are showing on your post is not useful at all. Especially if you get off the trail and disoriented. (by the way.. if you are not an experienced bushwhacker.. this is actually a good place to take one of those really loud whistles they sell in the recreational outdoor stores now... forests are thick and it's easy to get lost but during the months of August, Sept, and October there will always be someone within hearing range of one of those whistles.... expecially if it's a calm day....

Most of the rest of the lakes that run north and west and east of the triangle defined by cramer, dumbbell, and otter are pretty much empty. You'll see a few "mini trout" rising from time to time but that's it..


Jug-- This one is on the western boundary of the area and I've always done very well on 8 to 9 inch brookies there. I don't think it takes much pressure because all the horsers tend to bypass it for camps a couple miles further up the trail. Want to fish it with a float tube though. Don't see a lot of rises. The fish hold deep. Use fast taper sinking fly line and any kind of fly that looks small and fuzzy and keep it near the bottom.


Deer- This is another one that get's bypassed by the horsers because it's too close to the trail head. Slightly less than a 2 mile hike. Always see nice fish rising and there is a variety of sizes which is a healthy sign. I like to head up to this one in October and do a couple of quick runs around the lake with my tube and then head out. An afternoon of fishing to close out the high lake season. Always seem to catch at least one decent fish. Some years it's better, some years it's just one or two fish, but there's always something there.


I don't hike into lakes just to fish though. I look just as forward to the walk and the exercise as I do to the fishing and that's why I keep going up to the higher lakes. For the pure fisherman I think the best fishing lakes in this particular area are Leech and Dog and you can park right next to them and cast in your line........



There's an old Yakima legend (William Something) who served on the U.S. Supreme Court back in the 50's, 60's, and 70's who loved this area and wrote a book about it.. was named "The Man and the Mountain" or something like that...... as you can tell by the name guys like that tend to have huge egos.... I mean, you take a few classes, get a law degree, and then pass a test called the "bar"..... after that you chase ambulances for a decade or so and if you are really good at it you get appointed to be a judge. If your time is ordained and you didn't say anything stupid at any of the thousands of social gatherings you attend for the next decade or so you may get promoted to a position on a superior court or an appeals court and from there you join a special pool from which appointment to the grand supreme court is possible.. possible assuming the right hands have been greased and that you haven't done anything too stupid in all your time working cases. So anyways, this guy from yakima gets appointed to the supreme court and serves for several decades and all of a sudden he's the "Man" who gets to be next to the "Mountain".. unbelieveable....... of course then there's the wilderness area named after Henry (Scoop) Jackson... (If you ever met Scoop this one would make you howl. a good talker but totally out of shape.. no way he ever did any hiking on any of those trails)... but let's not go there today...



I haven't read "The Man and the Mountain" but if you are really interested in the area from White Pass down to Goose Prairie (e.g. near Bumping Lake) it might be worth picking up.


Not sure what your range is (e.g. how far north, west, south, or north you feel comfortable driving before you get to the trailhead or get lost trying to find the trailhead) but I will whisper the name of the mountain hike-in lake that, IMHO, is the best for numbers and size of fish in the whole of our washington cascade mountains... It's castle lake in the Mount St. Helen's Monument area..... and it happens to the the lake in the background of my avatar.... But that's a whole nother story...



















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Littleriver.......These lakes all sound very interesting. How would you go about getting to them? How many mile hike is it to these lakes? What species of trout are in there? OK I'm embarrassed for asking this question so don't make fun....... but do the GPS work up there? I know this sounds a little city slickerish , but it saved my life last march, so now I dont go camping with out it.

GPS will work as long as you have an unobstructed line of sight to the satellites....

This area is heavily wooded but there are clearings and high spots you can get to if there is too much interference.

I was just up in the area today and it looks like most of the snow is gone...The ski slopes are totally clear anyways..

and it's been a "cool" melt so there aren't any mosquitos yet... may be able to work these lakes next weekend without the pesky insects.... they need 70F days and above to get their motors running.....

Most important tool to work these lakes though isn't a gps it's a green trails map.. be looking for the White Pass map.. it will show where all the trails and access points are....

All the trails are interconnected, but the best access point for Jug Lake is Soda Springs campground and you get there by turning north onto a gravel road a couple of miles east of the junction to Mt. Rainier National Park off of Hwy 12...... It's about a 4 mile hike from Soda Springs campground to Jug but only about a mile of it's steep.......


Deer Lake is accessed from a gravel road just east of the white pass ski area... go to the end of the "ski parking zone" and just beyond that you'll see the road.. it's kind of hidden by a mound of dirt so go slow... just drive down this road by Leech lake and the Deer lake access area is the same as the leech lake access.. (don't forget your trail pass)...

Deer lake is only about a 2 mile hike up a very well maintained and heavily used trail.... but most the people (especially the horsers) who use the trail bypass Deer lake for points beyond.... I really wouldn't worry about getting lost on a trip to deer lake...


Cramer Lake and the others are all accessible from both the Deer Lake trailhead and the Soda Springs trailhead but it's a very long hike from those points.... closest access to Cramer, Dumbbell, Otter, and that bunch of lakes is the Dog Lake Access.......

This is where things get a little more complicated..... There's a small part of the Gifford Pinchot national forest that is managed by the Wenatchee National Forest crew... The Wenatchee national forest crew like little extra $5 parking fees wherever they have jurisdiction and the Dog Lake campground is one of those places.... so if you want to park at the dog lake campground you gotta put $5 in the jar....


you can get around this annoying inconvenience by parking in a very large shoulder area just east of the campground. Most of those who fish Dog lake use this parking area instead of the Dog Lake campground so your vehicle will have company... To get to the trail just walk up into the Dog Lake campground and you'll see the signs.... about 1.5 miles into this hike there is a stream to cross and the stream is greater than ankle depth... there's a little side trail that takes you up to a large log that can be walked over and this is the way most (except the horsers) who use the trail go.....

after that it's just a little uphill walk and you are at cramer lake....... The trail to dumbbell is little tougher.. you have to negotiate some junctions but there are signs and it's not too tough to get there if you just follow the signs and use a little common sense.....

The trail to otter is not signed and there is nothing to tell you where it's at visually or sign wise when you go by it.... gotta have a green trails map and a good sense of direction......

but if you haven't had too much experience at this kind of thing a good emergency whistle along with the green trails map and gps will be useful....


There's a stream fishing opportunity in that area that virtually nobody knows about and it's the clear fork of the Cowlitz river... this picturesque mountain stream follows highway 12 west of white pass and runs along the sw side of the road....

Almost exactly 3 miles west of the union 76 at the top of white pass(I measured it today) you will see a wide shoulder area on the south side of the highway (it's about 50 yards past a blue sign saying "Scenic Viewpoint 1/2 mile")... If you park on this shoulder area and walk south you'll go through an opening in the highway guard rail and be walking on a very marginally maintained but easy to follow mountain trail... it's about 1 1/2 miles down to the river... I walked down there today and there are some blowdowns across the trail.. most can be stepped over or walked around but a couple must be crawled under (I hate the crawling under ones)....

Clear fork is in good shape.... ready to fish.... definitely going to need hip boots or waders though but the water is clear and the riffles are inviting and there are lots of little holes and backwaters created by fallen trees and other kinds of natural debris that seem to be begging someone to drop a little worm on a hook down into so the trout there can be harvested.... the river is in a very steep ravine but there is a fairly wide, gravelly river bottom to work... so fly fishing is definitely an option...

If you work downstream from where the trail crosses the river you will no doubt very quickly reach trout waters that simply don't get fished from one year to the next...... but still, I wouldn't expect any large fish..... water runs extremely cold here, even in August and September, and this means the food chain is not well developed..... but if you like to fish in uncrowded places this is one of them...

Hiked up to Cramer today thinking that the long cold, rainy, and windy spring might mean the mosquitos wouldn't be out yet.

Well, I was wrong. First couple of miles of the hike weren't too bad but once you walk over the log to cross the stream that feeds Dog lake (about 1.5 miles out) things start getting dicey. The closer you get to Cramer Lake the more bugs there are. Ultimately black fly's join the skeeters and it gets pretty intense. I went all the way to Cramer and really got chewed up. Hopefully none of these mosquitos are carrying the west nile disease because if they are then I'm infected. The bad news on this count is that I didn't see any crows. Crows are extremely suseptible to west nile and it knocks them out very fast.

Was going to hike up to dumbell and then pick up the crest trail back to Deer lake and swing back to Dog Lake access via the Dark Meadows trail but the bugs were just too intense.... Got to the north end of cramer. Checked out the shoreline (a 7 or 8 inch class trout splashed about 20 feet out as I stood by the lake) and confirmed that cramer is a relatively shallow mud bottom lake and headed back to the pickup.